Even as the Chinese government cracks down on political activism and freedom of expression, the country’s women’s rights movement continues to push forward.

Four years ago, on the eve of International Women’s Day, Chinese authorities jailed five women for planning to hand out stickers protesting sexual harassment on subways and buses. Since then, the government has only tightened its grip on public protest. But China’s feminists have become adept at finding ways around the authorities.

For one, rather than being led by a small handful of high-profile activists, the women’s rights movement in China is a more decentralized network of agitators. In January 2018, in a coordinated effort, thousands of students at universities across the country signed petitions to protest against sexual harassment. Government censors deleted many of the petitions shortly after they were posted online, but the action galvanized the country’s nascent #MeToo movement.

By engaging in protests with no recognizable leader or hierarchy, feminists in China have made it more difficult for the government to target them. This stands in contrast with other political movements in China, many of which are led by high-profile male activists like Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Liu Xiaobo, who died in custody in 2017.

What’s more, the authorities’ attacks on feminists don’t necessarily signal hostility towards women’s rights — gender equality has been on the books in China far longer than in many Western countries. In its first constitution in 1954, the Communist Party stated that women should have “equal rights with men in all areas of political, economic, cultural, social, and domestic life.” (Of course, in the 65 years since, women in China have dealt with plenty of inequality, despite official policy.)

More likely, the government’s pushback against China’s women’s rights movement has more to do with its aversion to any particular group of citizens organizing politically. Even as China has transformed from a relatively closed society to a booming free-market economy, the Communist Party has insisted on its own singularity as the country’s sole political force, and has resisted “movements” of all kinds, from Falun Gong to LGBT rights.

But China’s feminists may have cracked the code to unimpeded activism. As one leader of the movement told The Guardian: “The feminist movement is about… building a community, rather than just having one or two famous individuals who can enlighten everybody else.”

Brazil’s iconic Carnival festival took on a decidedly political air this year as throngs of women engaged in colorful protests against rape, violence towards women, and the country’s blatantly chauvinist president Jair Bolsonaro.

At the festival, many women emblazoned their breasts and buttocks with messages such as “my body, my rules” or “no means no.” The face of late Rio de Janeiro councilor Marielle Franco, a black gay rights activist who was killed in an apparent assassination last year, was visible across the city on flags, stickers, and banners. The Mangueira Samba school paid tribute to the late politician in their championship-winning parade. And at a women-run street party called Calcinhas Bélicas (Warlike Knickers), festival goers were heard chanting Franco’s name.

“This year, Carnival has a completely new face,” said Franco’s widow, Monica Benicio. “Brazil’s feminist movement is one of the most organized in Latin America, and to see Marielle become a symbol of this is very emotional.”

“When Mangueira pays homage to her, when it highlights this woman, it is demanding justice,” added Rafaela Bastos, one of Mangueira’s top dancers.

One group of women protesters wore crop tops, pink shorts, and blonde wigs as they posed as “Barbie Fascists” — an ironic reference to the denunciations lobbed at feminists by Bolsonaro and his supporters.

“He is a threat to our rights,” said one Barbie, Priscila Rangel, as she stopped to pose for a photograph.

A group of roughly 800 Orthodox Jewish women known as the Women of the Wall had their prayer service at the Western Wall in Jerusalem violently disrupted by thousands of ultra-Orthodox protesters on Friday. The service, which was meant to celebrate the group’s 30th anniversary, had to be moved to the egalitarian side section of the holy site after two of Women of the Wall’s members were injured by protesters, according to a spokesperson from the group.

Women of the Wall has long fought with ultra-Orthodox groups over the right of women to lead prayers at the Western Wall. Ahead of Friday’s service, several prominent rabbis had called on their students to disrupt it. Police said that at least one ultra-Orthodox protester had been arrested for attempting to assault a police officer, but declined to say whether the women at the service had been attacked. In a statement, the Women of the Wall accused police of “abandoning” them as protestors pushed, shoved, and cursed at them.

According to Women of the Wall, the Western Wall Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitch also sought to sabotage the service by refusing them the right to use a speaker system for the prayer. Instead, they said, Rabinovitch gave another group in the men’s section the right to use their own speaker system, allowing them to drown out the Women of the Wall’s service.

Women of the Wall leader Anat Hoffman said her group refused to be intimidated.

“We have been here for 30 years,” said Hoffman. “And so we will continue, every month of the year, for good.”

Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II posted on Instagram for the first time on Thursday during a visit to the London Science Museum. In her post, the Queen shared a photo of a letter written by computer pioneer Charles Babbage to her great-great-grandfather Prince Albert, the husband of Queen Victoria. Writing on a touchscreen iPad at the museum, the Queen noted that the letter described Babbage’s “Analytical Engine,” upon which “the first computer programmes were created by Ada Lovelace, a daughter of Lord Byron.”

“Today, as I visit the Science Museum I was interested to discover a letter from the Royal Archives, written in 1843 to my great-great-grandfather Prince Albert,” the Queen wrote. “I had the pleasure of learning about children’s computer coding initiatives and it seems fitting to me that I publish this Instagram post, at the Science Museum which has long championed technology, innovation and inspired the next generation of inventors.”

The Queen signed the post simply: Elizabeth R.

In a comment on the Queen’s post, the Science Museum thanked her for her support, as did many other adoring commenters, some of whom noted the significance of the post’s timing.

“Her Majesty is brilliant,” wrote @gloriam_vanine, appending her comment with several hand-clap emojis. “In the International Women’s Day, she posts a message informing all of us that the first programmer was a woman.”

In a lawsuit filed on Friday, all 28 members of the world champion U.S women’s soccer team accused the U.S. Soccer Federation of years of “institutionalized gender discrimination.”

In the suit, the players said they received inadequate support, worked in subpar conditions, and played (and won) more games than the men’s national team despite being paid substantially less money than the male players. Gender discrimination, the women’s team argued, impacted not only how they were paid, but also the medical treatment and coaching they received, the frequency and quality of their training, and even their travel arrangements.

The current escalation comes after a longstanding battle over equal pay between the national team players and the USSF. In 2016, five of the team’s top players — Hope Solo, Carli Lloyd, Alex Morgan, Megan Rapinoe, and Becky Sauerbrunn — filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, asserting that women players were paid nearly four times less than their male counterparts.

After three years of inaction on the part of the USSF, the EEOC gave the women access to a right-to-sue letter in February. The players now hope to have their lawsuit granted class action status on behalf of all current or former players on the women’s national team since February 4, 2015. If the players win their suit and are awarded back pay and other relief, the settlement could potentially reach into the millions of dollars.

In April 2017, the team signed a new collective bargaining agreement with the USSF that reportedly increased their pay by more than 30 percent. While the agreement fell short of the player’s goal of equal pay, it was hailed at the time as a significant step forward. Now it will be up to courts to determine whether or not true equal pay — and treatment — will be realized.